COMESA Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa

The objectives of the subject “Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)” are the following:

1. To understand the aims, functions, and institutions of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA);
2. To know the economy of the COMESA region;
3. To analyze the steps of the COMESA integration process: free-trade area, customs union, common market and economic community;
4. To evaluate the benefits for the COMESA member countries;
5. To know the COMESA Trade Facilitation and transport programs;
6. To analyze the role of the affiliated institutions: PTA Bank, COMESA Reinsurance Company, ACA;
7. To learn about the Nile Basin Initiative, Indian Ocean Commission and Economic Community of the Great Lakes Region.

The Subject “Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)” belongs to the following Online Programs taught by EENI Global Business School:

Doctorate: African Business, World Trade.

Masters: Business in Africa, International Business, Foreign Trade.

Courses: Business in Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa.

Languages: or Marché commun de l’Afrique orientale et australe (COMESA) Mercado Común de África Oriental y Austral (COMESA) Mercado Comum da África Oriental e Austral (COMESA).

1. Credits of the Subject “Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA)”: 2 ;
2. Duration: two weeks.

COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa).

The COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) strategy is the “economic welfare through the regional integration in the Southern African region.”

The COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) members economies are Burundi, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

South Sudan, has requested the access to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).

1. These countries are predominantly Christians;
2. Muslim countries are the Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Somalia, and Sudan;
3. The population of the COMESA Markets: 406 million inhabitants;
4. Former members of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA): Lesotho (1997), Mozambique (1997), Tanzania (2000), Namibia (2004), and Angola (2007).

The COMESA Free-Trade Area was achieved in 2000 when nine of the COMESA member economies (Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) eliminated their tariffs on the originating products from the Eastern and Southern African Countries.

This followed an Foreign Trade liberalization programme that started in 1984 on the reduction (and eventual elimination) of the tariff and non-tariff trade barriers in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region.

Burundi and Rwanda joined the COMESA Free-Trade Area in 2004.

These eleven economies of the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) Free-Trade Area have not only eliminated the customs tariffs but are working on the eventual quantitative restrictions and other Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) elimination.

Other objectives related to the COMESA trade promotion are:

1. Regional Trade liberalization and customs cooperation;
2. Improving the transport and communications administration to facilitate the movement of products, services, and people between the economies in the COMESA region;
3. Macroeconomics and monetary policies coordination.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) plans to become a Customs Union.

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa belongs to the African Civilization:

1. Southern African Economic Area;
2. East African Economic Area;
3. Central African Economic Area.

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank was created in 1985 following the dispositions of the Treaty of 1981 establishing the Preferential Trade Area, which has since been transformed into the Common Market for Eastern and Southern African States (COMESA), as a financial arm of the integration agreement.

Trans-African Corridors in the COMESA region:

1. Northern Corridor;
2. Lobito Corridor;
3. Tripoli-Windhoek;
4. Cairo-Gaborone;
5. Beira-Lobito;
6. North-South Corridor;
7. Lagos-Mombasa;
8. Asia-Africa Corridor.

The largest ports in the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) region are:

1. Port of Mombasa;
2. Port Said;
3. Port Sudan;
4. Port of Djibouti;
5. Port of Toamasina.

EENI African Business Portal.

(c) EENI Global Business School (1995-2023)
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